Lineage warehouse investigation underway as part of Mayor Bass' executive order

California Department of Toxic Substances Control officers arrived at the Lineage warehouse on Tuesday afternoon as part of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass' emergency executive order, which calls for an investigation at the partially burned-out Boyle Heights facility.

"The residents of Boyle Heights and East L.A. deserve environmental justice and corporate accountability," the mayor's office said in a statement. "Today, DTSC was onsite with a search warrant, and an investigation is ongoing."

Aerial footage taken Tuesday afternoon at the half-destroyed warehouse showed the front door to its 1400 Los Palos Street offices open, with police officers standing by on the property.

"Investigators must be able to follow the evidence wherever it leads, and their findings should help give residents the information they need about their health, safety, and the future of this site," Council Member Ysabel J. Jurado wrote in a statement.

Bass issued an Emergency Executive Order in July directing city departments to pause the issuance of rebuilding permits for Lineage until "the city and the public can analyze the site and its proposed uses while weighing health, safety, and environmental impacts."

The concern comes after roughly half of the 500,000-square-foot cold storage facility burned for about one week, leaving an estimated 85 million pounds of spoiled food. It took Lineage just over 11 weeks to clean up the site, all the while neighbors protested the stench and health impacts.

Lineage announced the completion of all food waste cleanup activities on Sept. 5, with debris removal, power washing, cleaning and disinfecting of the site's interior also complete, the company said.

On Tuesday, Lineage issued a statement, primarily addressing concerns of ammonia at the site.

"To be clear, we do not store hazardous chemicals or products in this facility. We store food. Further, the facility's ammonia refrigeration system was safely pumped out shortly after the fire began and before the fire reached the refrigeration system. The ammonia was subsequently removed from the site. The Los Angeles Fire Department reported no ammonia was detected during its response, and subsequent environmental monitoring has consistently shown results within normal levels for the neighborhood and no ammonia concentrations above health-based action levels."

The Los Angeles City Fire Department completed its arson investigation into the warehouse fire on Sept. 22, classifying the cause as undetermined. The solar panels and their connected components were not conclusively found to be the cause of the fire, but the investigation could not rule them out.